One of the 2008 assortments of standard, individually carded Star Wars
figures was entirely a "Fans' Choice" assortment. And what
thew fans chose, for the most part, was for certain notable figures,
particularly Troopers of various sorts, that had been hard to find store-exclusives
of one sort or another, to receive wider release as non-exclusives.

This has not, however, as of this writing, necessarily made them that
much easier to obtain. The assortment, as one might expect with a designation
of "Fans' Choice" and no shortage of army-builders, has proven
to be extremely popular, and as such extremely elusive. To date, I've
only seen the assortment once, and snagged what I could. This included
-- the SHADOW STORMTROOPER.

In the classic Star Wars trilogy, the vast ranks of the Imperial Stormtroopers
all wore white armor over black undersuits. But in the vast, expanded
universe of Star Wars, who's to say that this was the only color of
Stormtrooper available? Indeed, there were the even more sinister and
deadly-looking Shadow Stormtroopers, and you never quite knew when they
would turn up.

According to their history: for much of the Galactic Civil War, a mysterious
agent of Palpatine code-named Blackhole carefully sifted through countless
streams of data, distilling it into useful information for Imperial
Intelligence. Blackhole had an impressive amount of resources available
to him, including a Star Destroyer and its complement of troops and
fighters. Per his orders, the Stormtroopers under his command had their
armor cast in black, as opposed to the usual white, to match his own
particular eccentricities. The armor modification had practical benefits
as well. The stygian- triprismatic polymer afforded the stormtroopers
increased sensor-stealth.

Interestingly, the Shadow Stormtroopers were one of the earliest non-movie-appearing
variants to turn up in the world of Star Wars. They actually had their
first appearance in the Star Wars newspaper comic strip, distributed
by the Los Angeles Times Syndicate, in a storyline entitled "Gambler's
World". In this story, the Shadow Stormtroopers were sometimes
called "Blackhole Troopers" because of their affiliation with
an individual known as Agent Blackhole. This was back before George
Lucas started playing with his alphabet soup to come up with weird alien
names for everybody.

In this storyline, which took place shortly after the Battle of Yavin,
which destroyed the original Death Star in the first movie, Luke Skywalker
and Leia Organa were sent on a mission to Vorzyd V, the "Gambler's
World," where they were to disrupt the Imperial gambling operations
with the support of the president of that world. However, the operation
was disrupted by Agent Blackhole, and platoons of his Shadow Stormtroopers
were seen fighting the local resistance and the Alliance troops.

The Shadow Stormtroopers also put in an appearance in the popular Crimson
Empire comic mini-series from Dark Horse, and indeed some of that artwork
appears on the figure's package. In this story, a squad of Shadow Stormtroopers
formed a bodyguard for aspiring Dark Lord Carnor Jax during his attempt
to take control of the Empire; it is believed that these were soldiers
from Blackhole's old elite unit, but it is not known how they had come
into service with Jax, or whether their attachment to him implies any
contact with Blackhole. It is possible they were some of the forces
placed under his command by the Imperial Ruling Council following the
Battle of Endor. It is notable that Jax himself had formerly served
in Blackhole's old unit. Although they were all slain by Kir Kanos on
Yinchorr.

The Shadow Stormtroopers are also expected to appear in the highly
anticipated video game "Force Unleashed", and indeed, there
are special edition Shadow Stormtroopers with, apparently, a metallic
finish, expected for this aspect of the Star Wars action figure collection.
However, that is not this particular Shadow Stormtrooper.

As I said at the top of the article, this "Fans' Choice"
assortment is heavy on figures, especially troopers, that were previously
very hard to find exclusives. And they didn't get much tougher than
the Shadow Stormtrooper. His previous appearance was at the San Diego
ComiCon in 2006, but was only sold at StarWarsShop.Com, an official
online store dedicated to Star Wars collectibles. And obviously, with
a 2006 release, it hasn't been available for some time, and was never
available in stores.

One can see why, perhaps, the Shadow Stormtroopers never put in a live
appearance in any of the movies. Their black armor would make them look
a little too much like Darth Vader. Yes, I know that TIE Fighter pilots
also wore black, but somehow, these Shadow Stormtroopers look a whole
lot nastier. The TIE Fighter pilots -- looked like pilots, ultimately.
Not that there's anything wrong with that. These Shadow Stormtroopers
look like very dangerous soldiers who would be capable of anything.

The figure is extremely impressive, and very cool. For one thing, it
uses the body molds established for the "Super-Articulated"
Stormtrooper that was produced a few years ago, and which has turned
up several times since (most recently wearing shoulder padding and marketed
as a Sandtrooper). The basic design is excellent. It's well proportioned,
if a little more slender than the average Clone Trooper, very well detailed,
and superbly articulated. One thing I appreciate, even though it seems
not to be terribly significant, is that the figure does not have a removable
helmet. Giving any trooper this feature tends to almost invariably result
in an oversized helmet that just doesn't quite look right. Besides which
-- we get it, already. They're all clones. They all look alike and they
all look like Jango Fett.

The Shadow Stormtrooper is articulated at the head, arms, elbows, wrists,
mid-torso, legs, knees, and ankles. Most of his articulation points
have a multiple range of motion, including not only back and forth movement
but rotation as well.

The armor has been molded in a somewhat glossy black plastic, with
a limited amount of paint detailing. The helmet has two silver knobs
along the "jaw", as well as the short little stripes along
the lower side, which are painted in medium grey. Although almost indistinguishable
except in really good light, the "cloth" undersuit, where
it shows where the Stormtrooper does not have armor, is an extremely
dark grey, not the usual black of the standard Stormtroopers. It's not
MUCH of a color variance, but it does exist, and as I said, in the right
light, provides a nice little extra level of detail.

The figure comes with a standard blaster firearm, which is described
on the package as a "DC-19 'Stealth' Blaster Rifle." I'm honestly
not sure what this means. I couldn't find an entry for it in the "Star
Wars Essential Guide to Weapons" (although I don't have the updated
version), and it seems to me that Blaster Rifles aren't exactly made
for stealth. They tend to be rather noisy devices, and that burst of
light tends to be something of a giveaway.

And my final word on the Shadow Stormtrooper? Heck, what's not to like?
-- besides the current difficulty in finding one. It's an Imperial Stormtrooper,
who looks darn cool and impressive in black, with an interesting history
in the "Expanded Universe" of Star Wars, with more to come
in "Force Unleashed", it seems, and the figure itself is well-made,
nicely detailed, and as well-articulated as you're going to find in
the Star Wars line, which is considerable. The STAR WARS SHADOW STORMTROOPER
definitely has my highest and enthusiastic recommendation!